text: Because they didn't break the law, rather they overextended their authority. For normal people like you and I, everything is legal except which is made illegal as stated in law. When we break the law, there are penalties. For the government, it is the reverse. That is, the government is permitted to do nothing except which power is granted to them by law. Now, there aren't automatic penalties when the government does something it wasn't explicitly granted permission to do and it's more along the lines of "stop doing it and don't do it again." In these cases mostly what will happen are specific reparations made to people who have been harmed by that over reach and can articulate that harm in a court of law. So people can bring suit (and indeed it is a suit that resulted in this ruling).  > And I'm certain that the NSA is still spying on people, why is there no regulation for it? The government is regulated, but that regulation is not determined by what you are certain of.